Le jour de gloire est arrivé! France Wins!

Some thoughts on today's World Cup final:

As usual, the best stateside coverage came from the New York Times.

I'm still not sold on instant replay, known in soccer as VAR (video assistant referee), but I think it helped get one call right today.  I thought it was a hand ball on Croatia's Ivan Perisic (#4) but referee Nestor Pitana originally called a corner kick for France.  After reviewing the play he overruled himself and awarded the penalty kick, which Antoine Griezmann easily converted to put France up, 2-1, in the 38th minute.  The Times questioned whether the call  should have been overturned.

Overall I thought Pitana and his AR's called a good game although I did not think it was a foul on the play that gave France a free kick  that led to the first goal in the 18th minute.

I felt bad for Croatia's Mario Mandzukic, who headed the ball into his own net on that first French goal.  It really wasn't his fault - to me it looked as though he got up as high as he could and the ball deflected off his head.  He redeemed himself in the 69th minute when French keeper Hugo Lloris made a terrible mistake and played the ball to Mandzukic, allowing an easy goal.  Not sure if this is the first time a player has ever scored for both teams in a cup final.

French coach Didier Deschamps (is that a cool French name or what?) became only the third person to win a World Cup as a coach and as a player.  The others were Franz Beckenbauer of Germany and Mario Zagallo of Brazil.  I met Beckenbauer a few times when he played for the Cosmos and I covered them for the Trenton Times.

The French team showed class, forming an honor guard for the Croatians during the awards presentation, and the presidents of France (Emmanuel Macron)  and Croatia (Kolinda Grabar-Kitorovic) seemed pretty classy themselves during the ceremony, which took place in a downpour.  (No one from FIFA thought to have a portable canopy available for bad weather.)

For France in Memory of Louise

As we all know, France plays Croatia for the World Cup later today.

Twenty years ago, when the Cup was held in France, my wife, Louise, came home from work at the Inquirer a few days before the opening games and asked if France was any good.  Um, yes, I replied, they had a chance of winning it all.  The reason for her inquiry was that she had picked France in her office pool.

Sure enough, on July 12 at Stade de France in Saint-Denis outside Paris, the French beat Brazil, 3-0, to win the Cup.  They had edged Croatia, 2-1, in the semi-finals a few days earlier.  Louise brought home several hundred dollars and everyone thought she was a soccer genius.  Truth be told though, she had pulled France out of a hat, but she was honest enough to admit it.

In the next two World Cups in 2002 and 2006 we joked about France being Louise's team and rooted for France if they were not playing the United States or Germany.  But like defending champion Germany this year, they did not make it out of the group stage in 2002 and in 2006 they lost to Brazil in a shootout in the final in Berlin.

Sadly, Louise did not live to see another World Cup.  She passed away on December 11, 2006, shortly before what would have been our 37th anniversary.  Today I will be remembering her team and hoping France can win another World Cup for her.